Staff

Mark LaRiviere
Co-founder & Chief Program Officer

Mark has been training teachers in the art of authenticity for over twenty years. In 1997 he developed the Creative Classrooms program to train and place working artists in inner-city parochial schools around New York City. Mark co-founded the Children’s Arts Guild in 2010 to help children develop their authentic selves through creativity education. As Chief Program Officer, Mark has created authenticity-based creativity programs for teachers, administrators, and parents across the country. When Mark isn’t in the classroom, he produces his own art and regularly shows his work in galleries and museums.

Sarah Krauss
Community Relations Manager

As an artist and an organizer, Sarah believes in the deeply transformative power of art, especially for children. A graduate of NYU Sarah has sung, danced, and acted her way and across the country.  Sarah joined the Guild in 2017 after working as a Correspondence Assistant on the Hillary Clinton campaign and as an organizer of the Women's March on Washington. Sarah considers the intersection of art and social change the cause of her life and is thrilled to be helping the Guild support children in growing into more intelligent, engaged, and productive people.

Nakeisha Daniel

Program Facilitator

Nakeisha Daniel is a multi-talented artist who has been seen on national and international stages and screen. Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, her love of theater sparked at an early age eventually leading her to earn a BFA in Musical Theater, an MFA in Acting from Penn State University. As an arts education advocate, Nakeisha’s mission is to transform student learning and to support educators through arts integration. She is grateful to have worked with a wide variety of organizations including; The Alliance Theater Center, Charleston Gaillard Center, The Citadel, College of Charleston, East Tennessee State University, Storytree Children's Theatre, and Engaging Creative Minds. Nakeisha believes it is a privilege to inspire creativity in others.

Tessa Benau

Program Facilitator

Tessa is a native New Yorker and educator who believes we have a lot to learn from children. She began her teaching career immediately after college, expecting to teach for just two years, but she fell in love with the profession and never left. In her work with high school students, Tessa has learned more from her students--about people, the world, and humanity--than she could ever teach them. She feels grateful every day to be in relationship with her students and their families. When she’s not working with young people, you can find Tessa running around Brooklyn, chasing sunsets.

Kezia Plummer

Program Facilitator

Kezia is a speech-language pathologist and mentor/big sister for the Big Brother Big Sister program of New York City. For the past 17 years, Kezia has worked with the Department of Education, providing speech/language therapy to children with severe disabilities ages 3-10 years old. She is passionate about helping individuals with special needs find their voice and feel inclusive in their environment. Kezia believes everyone has something to say despite any disabilities they may have and they should have a way to do so. Kezia is also an advocate for parent involvement and doing what she can to support parents in doing their best to support their children. She is dedicated to mentoring our youth and helping them feel comfortable being their authentic selves. Kezia is grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the growth and development of children. She truly believes it’s one of her callings. 

Board of Directors

Marcia Brumit Kropf, Ph.D.

Marcia currently consults on interesting and challenging opportunities that build on the skills and expertise developed in her career in the non-profit sector, as an educator, researcher, and senior executive, especially those that involve changing the world for women and girls.  From 2015 to 2019, Marcia served as President of the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College, an independent nonprofit serving over 37,000 alumnae of the women’s college, founded in 1837. Marcia served for eight years as the Chief Operating Officer of Girls Inc.®, the nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Previously, Marcia spent 12 years at Catalyst, the premier nonprofit research and advisory organization working to advance women in business, as Vice President of Research & Information Services. Prior to her work at Catalyst, Marcia spent over 20 years working in public education in a variety of positions, from classroom teaching to software design, focusing primarily on curriculum design and evaluation. 

Glynna Christian
Chair

Glynna is Co-Head Global Technology Transactions and Partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. She advises FTSE 100, Fortune 100 and other public and private companies on international corporate and commercial transactions, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and financial arrangements with an emphasis on technology, media and telecommunications.

Prior to joining Orrick, Glynna served as an original member of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Joint Commission on Technology and Science of the Virginia General Assembly. She also served as Senior Counsel and Chief Investigator to the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and as Counsel-Special Investigation to the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs during its campaign finance investigation.

Amy Comer

Amy is a corporate partner at Faegre Baker Daniels. An internationally recognized practitioner, Amy represents global and U.S. clients in multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals and life sciences, TMT, insurance and financial services, and oil & gas, oilfield services, and renewables. Amy advises clients on cross-border and U.S. domestic investment and financial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships, restructurings, corporate and project finance transactions, and general corporate and commercial matters.

Amy is a Committee Member of the Marie Curie London Brain Games, an annual black tie fundraising event in the city of London, which raises funds to support Marie Curie UK, a charity that provides nursing care and support to people living with any terminal illness and their families, helping them to stay at home until the end of their lives and providing local independent hospices and services.

Tess Frazier

Tess is Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Class Technologies, Inc., an education technology company in Washington, D.C. providing a synchronous online teaching and learning platform built for use with Zoom. After acquiring her interest in education technology with roles at PeopleSoft and SAP, Tess joined then fledgling startup Blackboard, Inc. in 1999, where she was responsible for building and managing the contracting function in an aggressively sales driven environment that saw revenues increase to over $600M annually prior to her departure in 2016.  Upon leaving Blackboard, Tess joined education technology company Full Measure Education as SVP of Strategy & Operations. She is also Managing Director of Frazier Consulting Group, which provides strategic guidance to education technology companies.

Tess received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Loyola University in Baltimore. She is an avid kayaker and lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her son Michael, a member of DeMatha Catholic High School’s Class of 2022.

Michael Fullwood

Michael is Partner and Co-Lead of Business Advisory Services with ISG, a leading global technology research and advisory firm. He works with Fortune 500 and other global public and private companies to transform and optimize their business operations and align with business objectives. His focus has been in advising clients on sourcing transactions, automation enablement, distributed ledger technology, business process operational excellence and has provided clients with guidance on numerous initiatives covering North America, LATAM, Asia and Europe to maximize efficiency of support services.

Prior to joining ISG, Michael worked in the equity capital markets as a series 7 & 24 investment banker; and with the U.S. Department of Treasury, as a tax law specialist. 

Michael has a passion for the welfare of children and volunteers time as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA).

Maryanna McConnell Johnson

Treasurer

Maryanna works with the Blue Rider Group in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management. Her clients are primarily collectors, artists and art-related institutions.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Maryanna was a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked with public and private institutions, guiding them through operational and strategic challenges. Maryanna started her career at Christie’s Auction House, providing appraisals and collection advice to collectors of decorative arts.

Maryanna earned her BA from Williams College and MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, where she was co-President of MIT Sloan Women in Management. She is a member of the Clark Museum Contemporaries and of Friends of the MIT List Center.

Michael Kessler

Michael is a Counsel in the Capital Markets group of Clifford Chance's New York office.  He focuses on domestic and international capital markets offerings for private equity firms, hedge fund managers, clean energy companies, real estate businesses and casinos.  Michael's experience includes a secondment to the Singapore office of Clifford Chance where he worked on a number of significant matters for the firm's India practice.

Michael received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Florida and a Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Michael has a passion for public service and he has made considerable pro bono service contributions in each of the last few years.  He has served on a committee of the board of Keigwin + Company, a modern dance company. Michael also serves on the board of directors of Oliver Scholars Program, Inc., a nonprofit that identifies low-income, high-achieving students and helps place them in independent high schools.

Michael lives in the West Village neighborhood of New York City with his wife, Katherine, and their two young sons, Daniel and James. 

Ashley Stewart

Ashley is Director at Gagosian, a global gallery specializing in modern and contemporary art with eighteen exhibition spaces across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She was previously the Director of Sales at Salon 94, where she oversaw the sales team and worked directly with a number of the gallery's artists. Prior to joining Salon 94, Ashley worked with the sales and exhibitions teams at David Zwirner gallery, most closely with a number of artists' estates, including Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Fred Sandback, and Al Taylor. Ashley received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History at Marymount Manhattan College and went on to receive her Master's in Fine and Decorative Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York.